Category: Traveling with Cancer

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A New Adventure!

the metastatic breast cancer journey banner

We did it! We purchased a new recreational vehicle/RV. It’s a 2021 Airstream International 30RB-Twin to be exact. We are moving toward a new ministry adventure and it will be exactly that. I can’t wait to share the details of the ministry in a later blog, but for now I’ll share some details of the Airstream. Isn’t she a beaut?!

We pulled it home from DFW Airstream in Ft. Worth today, after signing the papers and doing the walk through. It’s intense folks! Lots of learning to do. A diesel would have pulled a bit smoother, but our RAM 1500 did just fine.

We were full-timers in a fifth wheel with our daughter and little dog back in 2012, just before I was diagnosed with breast cancer the first time (that’s the reason we came off the road). We have a working knowledge of the RV set-up, but it’s amazing how much you forget after eight years. Plus the Airstream has just a few differences compared to what we had before.

We knew we didn’t want another fifth wheel, so we were debating between a diesel pusher and a travel trailer. Lots and lots of reasons why we decided to go with an Airstream related to health, overall value, and what is available in the market right now. The RV industry is craaazzzzyyy! We had a hard time finding a rig, and when we did it was sold before we could get to Dallas. They had another one en route and since we had seen the inside of the other one we snatched it up. If we hadn’t, it would have been February before we could get one.

It’s hard to get Tim to do a video, but we made this brief video of us taking it home. Tensions were high as we had just pulled away from the dealership and it was a challenge getting out of there!

And here’s a silly video of the inside tour. I’m so glad we are going to be able to take trips together and do ministry together. More on that to come!

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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New Truck!

You may chuckle if you’ve heard this one before. About two years ago we bought a dually one-ton truck with full intentions to pull a fifth wheel, then something happened that changed our minds. I think the brain mets might have scared us at the time, or for other reasons the fifth wheel ended up not being the right choice. Timing wasn’t right and we traded the truck for a VW Atlas SUV. Who does that? 😂

That was then. This is now. We are no longer afraid of my diagnosis, nor our future. We are living life to the fullest. We are living life in the present, fully engaged in ministry together. We are no longer worried about my cancer coming back because, guess what, it already did! My body is stable, and there are lots of treatment options if anything recurs. Worrying and fretting does not alter reality.

“Don’t live in the past or future…make history.”

~Wally Byam

Like the RV industry, trucks are hard to find! It’s nearly impossible to find a good used one, and the choice on new ones is slim due to decreased production in the pandemic. We settled on a 2020 Dodge Ram 1500, equipped with the tow package. The color is Patriot Blue with a black interior. It has new technology so we can charge our devices on the road. After multiple trips back and forth, they gave us a better deal than the Ford dealership could offer us. It has a little ding on the passenger door, so they also threw in service for two years because they didn’t want to fix it. (This was part of the reason for the back and forth, as we were looking for one without the obvious flaw.) Once the papers were signed we ended up in a better position than our VW Atlas. My husband is a negotiating savant. Amazing.

They gave us a “We Owe” to add the trailer break control. This is a requirement or the Airstream dealer will not let us drive off their lot. After we signed all the paperwork we went to parts department who said these were on back order until December!! Whaaaat?? Yet another result of the pandemic and decrease in production. We were about to tear up the contract, but they managed to do some computer voodoo and find us the part. Whew! We will have that installed on Monday. Wow! What a drama…

We got it home and it barely fits in the garage…barely! But it does fit with a few inches to spare. They were true on their word. I may need to lose a few pounds to squeeze over to my side. 😂

If you read my last blog you will recall that we are fully intending to keep this one. I made Tim promise we would not buy a truck until we had bought an RV. 😂 We put down a deposit on an Airstream and we are not going back on this deal! We will reveal more about our new ministry in time, but this is the first step of faith toward following God’s leading.

“Taking a leap of faith is better than taking a leap of doubt.”

~unknown

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Another New Adventure

Today was #chemoday. Truthfully I am on biotherapy, but most people don’t understand what that means. So, we call it chemo. It’s maintenance drips of Herceptin and Perjeta, which I get infused in the chemo room at MD Anderson, given by the chemo nurses every three weeks. No major side effects to date, and I’ve had more than 50 of these.

They got me in for treatment and even finished early, so we jumped in the car and took a drive to Dallas to look at an RV — a 2021 Airstream International 30RB Twin to be exact. If you haven’t been following the RV industry lately, it is hopping! It’s nearly impossible to find anything locally, or anywhere for that matter, as people are working from home and staying in the USA due to COVID, meaning they are buying up recreational vehicles.

We are in the process of launching a new ministry, where both of our skill sets will be vital to its success. We love doing ministry together, and we love challenging people to a spirit of adventure. We will be sharing more about this ministry as it unfolds, but the ride up and back included dreaming and planning how an Airstream can help fulfill our ministry goals.

We were “full-timers” about 8 years ago, in the latter half of 2012. We lived in a fifth-wheel with our then 9th grade daughter and our little dog Midge, traveling from location to location where we served the churches in Texas. We learned a lot about the RV lifestyle. This was brought to a screeching halt when I was diagnosed with breast cancer the first time. We sold the fifth wheel in exchange for chemo, surgery, radiation, and more treatment.

We have always dreamed of going back on the road, and God seems to be saying “now.”

No, we aren’t selling our house. No, we aren’t going full-time on the road. But, yes, we will be doing life and ministry together and it has the potential to happen in a silver RV.

A fifth wheel requires a lot more set-up than a travel trailer, is heavier to pull, and in general has more potential for things to go wrong with it. We crossed fifth wheel off the options. Our final debate was between a Class A motorhome or bumper pull. We really wanted the motor coach, but could not justify spending the money. We looked at cheaper travel trailers, but most bumper pulls as well as fifth wheels are made with formaldehyde (we can smell it and it burns my sensitive eyes!).

In the past two years we have done a LOT of research, and the Airstream checks the most boxes in our “must have” list. It has quality parts as well as an iconic history. Without the challenge of navigating slides, we feel this will give us the most flexibility as well as comfort on those longer road trips. Our research shows it has the highest resale of all products on the market as well.

This is definitely a leap of faith, and we are looking forward to seeing what God has in store!

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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Day 11 (and final day) of our 35th Anniversary Ride

208.8 miles today…. in the rain. 🌧 Cleburne, TX to HOME (Conroe, TX)!!

Today was our last day. Sad the trip is over but we are so glad to be home. We purposefully rode further yesterday to make today a shorter day. We kept watching the weather and there were thunderstorms all around us. But we decided to press on and prayed the whole way. It rained, but the visibility and temperature were manageable.

It rained for the first two hours—we were soaked to the bone—so we stopped in the new Sonic in Hubbard for a reprieve. It’s an indoor Sonic, not a drive-in like you typically see. I did not want to get back on the bike, but the show must go on!

After that we debated our route and decided to get home the fastest way possible. On to the interstate! From Buffalo the ride home was rain-free!

Total trip miles…3,008.8 (some 2-up, and some on two bikes). On my bike I rode 2759.9 miles!

Time for the 10,000 mile service!

As I reflect on this trip, I am grateful to the Lord for so many things. We made it, and we made it safely. (I did lay the bike down once, but that’s par for me.) I am thankful for a husband who supports me in my cancer journey, and even helps me get the bike into a good position for pulling out of parking spots. I am so blessed to have a stable body, with the ability to ride my own ride and go the distance. While I may get tired a little easier, I still have the ability to ride. We may sell my bike at some point and go back to riding 2-up on all the trips, but at least I can ride! God has blessed me with so many things. I can’t complain.

Thankful for a safe ride, for all the wonderful sites we saw, and for the joy of being together to celebrate our 35 years of marriage. Like I told Tim, this trip mirrored our life in many ways. Ups and downs, rain and sunshine, beautiful sites and some boring as well, life on the wild side, frustrations and love, laughter and tears, education and recreation, yummy foods and boring breakfast bags, exhausting but exhilarating, and so much more. We hope there are at least 35 more!

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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Day 10 of our 35th Anniversary Ride

370.5 miles today. Zig Zag route from Woodward, Oklahoma to Cleburne, Texas.

KSU 6:30 AM. We were trying to get ahead of the storm. It was still dark when we left. Unfortunately we never saw the sunrise because it was sooo cloudy all day. 😪 Very few patches of blue sky. I wore my clear goggles all but the last thirty minutes of the day.

It’s always an adventure!

We had planned on going one route, through Elk City, but my GPS had other plans 😂. At one point we were zig zagging through the countryside on Oklahoma county roads that didn’t even show up on Tim’s nav. Similar to when we rode through Kansas, these roads turned into dirt roads right after we turned off, so we were sweating bullets at times! It may have been an angel 👼 preventing us from the big storms which we could always see in front or beside us, but we did not ride under.

We ate breakfast at Love’s because we are so tired of the COVID- bag breakfast in the hotels which only offer a muffin at best. The Love’s cashier was an interesting lady. She rides this trike to work every day. She converted it to power with a 1-gallon gas tank all by herself. I love meeting people on our trips as they lead such fascinating lives!

We finally saw the sun! Somehow we managed to ride between the storm clouds for most of the day.

We did get rained on, only briefly, but we managed to avoid riding through the bad thunderstorms. We pulled into a roadside (covered) picnic area for a snack in Olney, Texas off 281 and the rain stopped. This is a new road for us but we have noticed Texas has lovely picnic stops. Incidentally a Sheriff pulled in the spot next to us, eating his BBQ lunch. We made sure to STOP as we were leaving 😂 (our last trip we both got a ticket for not stopping completely at a stop sign).

When coming through Wichita Falls, the temperature changed from a very cool 78 to a hot 90 in about one minute or less. Sudden changes like that are not usually a good weather sign 😳. A supercell formed to the east of us bringing heavy winds… so we kept plodding along.

We arrived at our hotel in Cleburne Texas just before the sky opened up. It did finally catch up to us after we checked into the hotel, so we ordered food from DoorDash. Wicked storm for sure!! We scored with an upgraded room and upgraded snacks. 😃 They talked us into trying the local root beer, and it was delicious! I would definitely have it again.

Flash Flood warnings – we are so glad to be inside! This storm looks like it will be hanging around a while. We have a short ride home tomorrow. About four hours. They are expecting more thunderstorms all day 😢😢. Praying the weather changes or we may have to hang out here in Cleburne until it passes. We are debating whether to just leave my bike here or grin and bear it. I admit I am a little scared! 😱😱

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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Day 9 of our 35th Anniversary Ride

(Life 360 App)

391 miles today. North Platte, Nebraska to Woodward, Oklahoma.

KSU was 8:00 AM, a little later than normal since it was 54 degrees. Brrr! Bundled up, layered up, buckled up and… eventually it warmed up to around 80 and the layers came off. With the exception of those two massive construction delays 😤, it was, as many folks along the way commented, “a beautiful day for a ride!”

This flagger was quite chatty. But she would not let us put our kickstands down for our FIFTEEN MINUTE delay. She said the blacktop was too soft, so we had to hold the bikes up in the wind. The trucker behind us got out to ask how long, and then made a snide remark about being a female on a construction crew. 🙄 She ended up switching to our pilot car driver after the wait, of which we were thankful because the other driver was really slow.

It was a super duper wicked windy day…and has been for the past several days. 💨

Tomorrow does not look as promising. For the first time in ten days, it looks like we are heading into a storm. Yikes!

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Day 8 of our 35th Anniversary Trip

Rapid City, SD to North Platte, Nebraska. On our way home!

We rode on the Gold Rush and Western Trails Scenic Byways and stopped for a brief, cool-off, museum visit in Bayard Nebraska to see the Chimney Rock National Historic Site. The pioneer emigrants used this landmark to navigate the trails. More emigrants wrote about Chimney Rock in their diaries than any other trail landmark. The museum is interactive and pretty cool for being in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. We agreed the entrance fee was our contribution to education. We didn’t walk all the way out to the Rock, as it was very hot and we had on our riding gear, but maybe when we were in our twenties we would have enjoyed the climb!

Me and my riding buddy at Chimney Rock Historical Site
Chimney Rock

After the museum, we rode through some horrible wind. Actually, we rode through strong winds all day. The byways are spattered with idyllic views. In the distance we saw Courthouse Rock (where we are told they used to put criminals on trial) and Jailhouse Rock (where they would hang them). We were on the bikes so I didn’t get a picture of those, but it entertained us nonetheless. I would like to visit them up close, as well as the remains of the pony express and other sites on the byways. This trip is the first we have spent riding through Nebraska and we left much for future trips. It’s a beautiful and historic state!

The bikes got thirsty so we stopped at Sinclair to fill up. It’s a popular gas station in this area, famous for their dinosaur icon. Even the DINO (Apatosaurus or Brontosaurus?) has a unique history. It was fun to see how each Sinclair presents the DINO. We like this local chain as it is clean and all, but they don’t usually have premium gasoline as it is harder to get. We settled for unleaded without ethanol. 🙄

I got 53 mpg on that last tank!

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Day 6 of our 35th Anniversary Trip

Site seeing around Rapid City, South Dakota. Some people trailer their bikes, then ride around when they get there. Not us. We rode our bikes to South Dakota and then rented a truck 😂😂. It’s not quite the same thing as those trailers. After all, we do ride! But we wanted to see more than we could accomplish in a day on a bike. We went all the places we missed (or didn’t see as completely) when we came here before. 

Stop one … Mount Rushmore.

Last time we came through the Black Hills, we pulled over on the motorcycle and took a picture, but we didn’t go in. This time, we went inside and walked all those steps. 😳 My legs were just beginning to feel normal after that climb at Happy Jack’s Peak, so I felt a bit of a burn on the thighs. However, these steps were not nearly as intense as the Peak. Of interest was how the sculptor chose the four presidents according to birth, growth, development, and preservation. We also remembered seeing Nicholas Cage on these same steps in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Mount Rushmore is an amazing wonder!

Next…a drive through Custer State Park.

After Mount Rushmore we drove through Custer State Park and the Needles Highway (SD-87). The bison had just walked through some wildflowers, so they had a lot of hitchhikers. (No, those aren’t bees LOL). One of my FaceBook friends said she wants to brush the poor thing. I agree; but, I don’t want to get any closer than my camera lens will take me. They did walk right by the car but generally left us alone. We saw lots of wildlife, in addition to the donkeys 😂, one-lane tunnels and magnificent views. We went to Custer State Park last time, but this time we drove on the extra tiny roads. We ended up on the Needles Highway somewhat by accident, but it was well worth the drive! A local told us about an RV who had to drive in reverse all the way back down that mountain, as the tunnels on SD-87 are too narrow and clearance too low. There’s an example of poor planning! I said to Tim multiple times while spinning around the 10 mph hairpin turns and narrow roads cluttered by traffic, “I’m so glad we are not on the bikes!!” Yikes! We had “plenty” of room, but we did fold in the mirrors on that big truck, just in case. A bit claustrophobic at times. To sum it up…Wow! Go there!

Crazy Horse Memorial was a quick stop for a photo but we didn’t go inside to save time. My great-grandmother was Cherokee, so I am always interested in learning more about Native American history. Maybe you know the story about the negotiation for Mount Rushmore. This was the Indian alternative to the other mountain sculpture. They declined government funding. The sculpture is still under construction. 

Next we took a ride on The 1880 Train.

It’s a steam engine, round trip ride to Hill City from Keystone (a very crowded city, so we were glad we didn’t wait until Saturday to do this one). We saw beautiful sites, more wildlife, and smiled at the joy of children on the train reminding us of our grandkids.

We learned lots of fun facts about the Black Hills from the narrators, but our favorite story revolves around “The letter Q.” If you’ve ever wondered why a train does too long whistles followed by a short whistle and another long whistle at the crossings, it is Morse code for the letter Q. Why? Because this was the signal ships would use when the Queen was on board, signifying she had the right of way. This remains the signal at Railroad crossings today, and of course a train always has the right of way.  Don’t debate it. 😂 😂 It was a refreshing ride in the warm afternoon.

Our last stop was Bear Country USA. We have never seen so many bears in one place!! I especially loved, loved, loved the bear cubs, and learning the different brown and black bear 🐻 subspecies. We also enjoyed watching the Timberwolves playing. This was a fantastic stop with lots of wildlife on the drive through safari. It was well worth the money.  We could not have done that on a motorcycle (not because we wouldn’t, although one might be a bit mental to try it, but because they do not permit it.)

I took many, many pictures! These are only a few. I love ❤️ checking items off my bucket list. I don’t know if I will ever finish the list, but traveling to these great icons and spending time with my honey is such a wonderful treat.

The weather was perfect. Nice and cool, breezy, and sunny. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. 🌞 

Á la prochaine…Until next time!

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Day 5 of our 35th (Riding Free)

Day 5 of our 35th Anniversary HOG Ride. From Kearney, Nebraska to Rapid City, South Dakota. 

We rode 436 miles today.

The projected storm ended up delayed so we made it all the way to Rapid City where we will stay three or four nights. We road the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway for a couple hundred miles, following the Middle Loup River and a railroad most of the way. Ruins and cemeteries decorated the path, making us wonder if there were any unique tombstones or gravesites of famous locals. This is a pretty cool ride, actually. We saw three out of the 10 “must sees” on the link above. In the spring, sandhill cranes migrate through this area, and the prairie chickens put on a show (apparently). We’ve seen the cranes in Florida, but they are here in abundance so we want to go back in some future spring.

We took the scenic byway all the way to Alliance, which has brick roads downtown for a super cool ride. Tim said he saw some old guy checking me out as I passed by 😂. You can hear me commenting on it in this brief video.

If you touch it, will you transport in time? Get it...? transport. 😆😆😆😂😂

Before leaving Alliance, we stopped at a unique art exhibit called Carhenge (cars painted and put in the ground patterned after Stonehenge) 😂😂, then rode through the Nebraska National Forest and two more scenic byways and on to Rapid City (through miles of construction).

We decided to give our legs a break for a few days. We have seen some of the sights from the road on a previous bike trip, so now we plan to get closer. They only had two options…a 1500 Dodge Ram or a minivan. You can guess which one we picked 😂. We didn’t realize it was missing running boards until Tim had to hoist me in, laughable for sure.

Found a fabulous pizza place before heading back to the hotel. It rivals our favorite pizza joint in Florida. I had the Wisconsin Cheese soup and garlic knots, but Tim’s pizza was some of the best we have tasted. The weather was perfect for outside dining, and again no one seemed too concerned about the coronavirus. Few if any masks out in public. We steered clear of people and kept our faces covered, but it was nice to feel a sense of normal again. 

As we were heading to bed the sky lit up and gave us a beautiful show. What a storm!

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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